Interaction of sol-gel derived TiO2- and SiO2-based bionanocomposites with erythrocytes and serum proteins

Nanoenabled drug carriers are emerging as alternatives to conventional small-molecule drugs and their in-vitro biocompatibility evaluation with blood components is a necessary part of early preclinical development. In the present study, Chitosan-based bionanocomposites of sol-gel derived TiO2 and SiO2 were synthesised by the ex situ process. Samples were characterised by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectrophotometer, transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction techniques. The analysis reveals the formation of single-phase oxides and their bionanocomposites. Haemolysis (destruction of red blood cell) study was performed by spectrophotometer to assess the haemocompatibility nature as a function of different incubation time. Experimental results reveal the percentage of haemolysis increase with the increase of the incubation time, but it was found to be <2%. This confirms our bionanocomposites are more haemocompatible as compared with respective nanocrystalline ceramics. Also, the interaction of our bionanocomposites with serum proteins at various incubation periods (1-24 h) were investigated using sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel experiment, the obtained results were discussed in details.